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Geo: 41.3879, 2.16992
Awoke (if indeed we ever slept) to any early morning landing at London Heathrow. Rambled through a long series of seemingly random hallways through Customs and baggage security check.
Sharon and I were funneled through two separate lines. My process was long, I thought, because of my near strip-down search due to my pacemaker, which can't go through electromagnetic security machines. When I finally reassembled myself, I looked around and Sharon was gone!
OK, so I thought Ms. Smartypants left the security area and headed for our next gate without me, figuring I was just being my usual slow me and would just catch up. So, I headed off in search of my travel mate.
But she was nowhere to be found. Back and forth for about 20 minutes I searched. A couple of the security guys were amused that I'd lost my wife. I wasn't. This just can't be good, I thought.
Went back to the baggage security check area and there she was, flustered and borderline melting down.
Heathrow security agents had completely torn apart and emptied her carry-on (which is all we travel with) and purse. My sweet little school marm wife was being read the riot act because she had
too many liquid containers to fit into her quart bag. They were counting and protesting all of the medicinal items like prescriptions and nasal spray and contact solution that US security allows to be packed outside the quart bag liquids.
And they were close to reducing her to tears from embarrassment and humiliation. When I tried to intervene and give her some support and answer their questions, I was brusquely dismissed. She had to discard several items, no rebuttals accepted.
Guess that's what first-hand bombings on your home soil can do to escalate your security measures. Nice hospitality, Brits. London, England is no longer on our bucket list.
Not a great start to the trip.
Shaken and perturbed, we made it to Barcelona on raw emotions and very little overnight sleep. But from that point on, things clicked, from euros exchange to the aerobus to Plaza de Catalunya to the taxi ride to our doorstep at the hotel in the old city, the Barri Gotic neighborhood. Checked in, unpacked, power napped for an hour, showered, and headed off to our first site in Barcelona, the Basilica de Sagrada Familia.
You may have seen pictures of this incredible place, and maybe you've even been there yourself
so you know what I mean, but words can't really describe the architectural and spiritual wonderland and masterpiece that Gaudi designed, created, and inspired.
Rick Steves described it as “bold, wildly creative, unmistakably organic architecture.” It is spirituality on modernistic steroids.
Some pictures of the profound exterior and the interior that portray a light immersed, spiritual forest are posted with this blog entry, but they probably don't do it justice.
An hour and a half of wonder, followed by a lift up the Passion Tower, and we were ready for tapas for dinner, still running on Gaudi-driven adrenaline and the spark of Barcelona. Found a great tapas bar, Sagardi's, right down the alley from our hotel, where we ate mouth-watering tapas and drank cerveza and a local red wine to our hearts and stomachs content for $30.
Happily, sleep fell fast over our travel weary souls.
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Jack and Paula
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Absolutely incredible photos of La Familia, the architecture, play on color, mood. Bravo.